Member Avatar for lewashby

Since I first moved to Ubuntu, one of my biggest complaints is Totem not having any audio, does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by mooreted

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raised a common problem: Totem (Videos) shows video but no audio. Some replies here suggested trying different players (, ) or external downloads (). If keeping Totem is preferred, the usual causes are either missing GStreamer audio plugins (codecs) or a PulseAudio/ALSA device/mute misconfiguration. The short checklist below helps find and fix the root cause.

First confirm the system audio and mixer settings. From a terminal check available ALSA devices, run a quick speaker test, and open the mixer to ensure channels are not muted:

aplay -l
speaker-test -t wav -c 2
alsamixer

If using PulseAudio, inspect per-application routing and restart the server if needed:

pactl list sinks short
pavucontrol         # install if missing: sudo apt install pavucontrol
pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio --start
# on systemd-user systems:
systemctl --user restart pulseaudio

Totem relies on GStreamer; missing plugins are a frequent cause when a file plays video but not audio. Check installed GStreamer plugins and install the common sets that provide most audio decoders:

gst-inspect-1.0 | grep -i mp3
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-libav

Run Totem from a terminal to capture error messages (totem /path/to/file) and check Totem's audio-track selection in the player menus. For diagnostics, collect outputs of aplay -l, pactl list sinks short, gst-inspect-1.0, and Totem's stderr—these reveal whether the problem is device routing, muted channels, or missing decoders. Avoid random third‑party binaries; prefer distro packages or official repositories when adding codecs or tools.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for barthuang

I find some powerful while Free multi-media softwares,you may download it from

Member Avatar for mooreted

I prefer VLC and it's in the repos. This isn't Windows so I don't suggest downloading unknown apps from the Internet. Mplayer is good but you have to install MS codecs. VLC will play just about anything.

commented: VLC FTW! +3
Member Avatar for JasonHippy

I prefer VLC and it's in the repos. This isn't Windows so I don't suggest downloading unknown apps from the Internet. Mplayer is good but you have to install MS codecs. VLC will play just about anything.

I second that motion! VLC is my media player of choice on all platforms!

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